Who's Responsible for Our JETTs & Teens?

Maria
April 28, 2003

Maria #137 10/90DO 2659

—"Every Man Shall Bear His Own Burden!"—Gal.6:5.

—By Maria

1. Once our Teens have been trained at one of our Teen Combos or Training Centers, the leaders at those Centers often don't want to let them go.—And they have some very legitimate reasons for not wanting to let them go! It's not just because they need their help at the Training Center, but they often feel like, "If they go back to their previous situation, all this training we've invested in them—particularly the spiritual training—will be lost! They're going to lose ground & deteriorate spiritually!"

2. The sad thing about it is that they usually do lose ground when they go back home, that's a fact! When they suddenly no longer have the kind of close supervision & shepherding & real understanding & time & attention that was given to them at the Training Center—things that Teens just seem to have to have—of course they're going to get off the track!

3. Having received training at the Teen Centers, they're usually a notch further along than they were before, they've made a lot of progress. But when they go back home, they often fall right back into their old weaknesses & problems. So they become no longer helpful or useful as trained personnel—either at the Training Center or at home! It's really a legitimate concern & problem!

4. I know that most of you field Homes are very shorthanded, & it's a very big sacrifice for you to give up your Teens so they can go & get some training, spiritually & otherwise. So of course, you need your Teens back. But when you get them back, the Teens are usually shoved into some job that's too big for them, too much responsibility for them, & they're frequently sort of left on their own.—Or they're put in a place with no challenge or no opportunity to grow & be trained in their ministry. Then the poor kids almost go right back to the state they were in before they ever went to the Teen Center to receive help & training!

5. It's a problem & a weakness with our present system & way of doing things. It makes me feel really burdened for you poor field Homes! You make such a big sacrifice in giving up your Teens so they can receive training, but when they get back, what happens? You initially get back good kids, re-envisioned & re-committed kids. But because your Homes don't continue any kind of an intensive Teen Training & Shepherding program, or invest the time & attention in them that they need, the poor kids frequently lose much of the good ground they have gained.

6. So we can't help but conclude that something's wrong with our present set–up if our families can't handle their own Teens in their own Homes! The Victor Shepherds say they're finding that they have a lot of repeaters coming back into the Victor Program. The kids go home all renewed, re-envisioned & wanting to do well & not be a disappointment, but because their Home doesn't uphold the same standard that was in the Teen or Victor Center, the kids regress in their attitudes & behaviour, & wind up discouraged, defeated & right back in the Victor Program again!

7. The big realisation that we all need to come to is that we can't put the whole responsibility of pulling our Teens & JETTs through to victory on just the Schools, Teen Homes & Training Centers! We've got to put the spotlight, the emphasis, that responsibility, on all of our people & all of our Homes! You all need to start doing the same job with your Teens & JETTs that the Training Centers have been doing! You need to get the vision & realise the desperateness of the situation right now!

LEARN TO CARE FOR YOUR OWN!

8. We can do our best to help start you out by trying to bring as many adult Shepherds & parents into the Victor Programs & Training Centers as we can to show you how it's done.—To really train more adult teachers & Shepherds who can then go out & give the same kind of Victor Program to the JETTs & Teens on the field as they do now in our Victor Centers. Then once you're shown how to run a Teen or Victor Program, once you know what the vision is & what the standard should be, it's going to be up to you!—No matter how hard or difficult it may be‚ no matter how many other younger children your Home has that need to be taken care of, you'll just have to do it, there's no other alternative!

9. We cannot continue to try to put this entire huge responsibility on the Training Centers‚ Schools & Teen Combos. We just don't have enough Victor Programs or even Teen Combos to handle all our Teens on a permanent basis! Even if we had room for all our Teens in special schools & programs, we would not be able to continue with this method of training for very long. The kids will eventually have to integrate back into their own Homes, which means their Homes have got to start learning now how to handle them & keep up that discipleship standard, challenge & high level of inspiration.

10. Each Home will have to become a little School & Teen Combo or Victor Program! We've got to somehow get all of you parents & childcare helpers & Shepherds to do the job with your kids right where you are! If you don't want to lose your Teens & JETTs & have them all backsliding & falling into all kinds of devilish foolishness, you've just got to learn to take better care of them!

11. The Techi GNs give an example of how to handle a child with problems in a small Home, on a small scale. Maybe it's on too small a scale, but I think it can be adapted to most of our Homes. If your children have problems—and you'll find that they all do, at least part of the time—you don't have to send them off to a Teen Combo‚ you can deal with the problems right in your Home.—That's what you've got to learn to do!

12. Even with the more serious cases, you're not going to always be able to say, "Help, help! Our kids are going to pot!—Where's the nearest Victor Program? Could you please take our kids? Then when they're all nice & clean & polished up‚ we'll take'm back!" As things tighten up more & more as we near the End, large Schools & Training Centers will become impossible to continue, & we will be forced to go back to small individual Homes. We're going to have to clean & polish them up ourselves, & then keep them clean & polished!

13. There's no easy business-as-usual solution. First of all, you're going to have to learn what the standard is, what it should be; & secondly, you'll have to do something much more difficult than learning what it is, you'll have to uphold it & keep it!

14. The first big realisation that all of you need to come to is that nobody else can do the job with your kids for you. The Schools or Teen Combos or Victor Programs may be able to help initially, but they're not going to be able to continue to do the job for you indefinitely! Your kids are probably eventually going to have to come back home to live with you, or in other small, more "normal" situations. Because of the persecution that we know is coming, we can't just continue relying on these huge Combos & Training Centers where we stack up all of our Teens.

15. I don't see any other simple solution or easy-to-apply answer. I think the most helpful thing we can do right now is do what we can to give you the challenge & encouragement to start looking on & treating your JETTs & Teens as real disciples, as babes in the Lord who need to be challenged & inspired & won to genuine commitment to Jesus & the Family! If you want to keep your kids & help them make it in the Lord's Work, you've got to get them sold on being revolutionary disciples. Of course, you'll have the Techi GNs to help you in your dealings with them too, which should help you to start nipping the problems in the bud.

16. You'll also have to start supervising the kids more closely. A very common statement from our Victors when they enter the Victor Program is, "We didn't have such close supervision before we came here." The kids have also got to have consistent discipline. They've got to be given enough time & attention as well. You've just got to have that close link & communication with them or you're going to lose them!—That's a fact of life! There's no "easy" way to bring up kids & keep them on the right track, except a lot of hard work & upholding & following the Lord's standard!

VICTOR TRAINING FOR ALL JETTs IN ALL HOMES!

17. We'll soon be coming out with FSMs on how the Victor Shepherds at the Heavenly City School set up their Victor Program. So even if you can't visit a Victor or Teen Center for on–the–job training, these FSMs will show you how it works‚ so you can do it in your own Home. We're not pubbing this material to promote having just one Victor Program set up in each Area. Maybe initially we'll have to do that, to help some of the most difficult cases get over their problems, but then when they graduate & go home, you've got to have another Victor follow-up Program to receive them. All the kids are going to have to be in Victor Programs of some kind or another, because that's the kind of discipleship training & revolutionary standard that they need to be taught to follow & uphold.

18. I think what our Victor Shepherds have written & the questions they have addressed are going to be very very helpful‚ making it possible for everybody to start putting it into practice in their Homes. You've got to! We can't just plan on having one big Victor Program in each Area, or a huge Teen Combo where we send all our JETTs & Teens. That's not going to be enough—it will only be a start in solving the problem.

19. Eventually our kids are going to have to graduate from their Teen Training Combos & Victor Programs & take their place in normal Homes where they are desperately needed to help fill positions of responsibility.—They're probably most desperately needed to help train all the JETTs coming up after them who are probably not going to have the opportunity to receive training in a large Teen Combo. So all of our Homes, & each Member in them, are going to have to share in the responsibility of training our JETTs & Teens.

20. Everybody will have to do their part. Even at present, we've got too many kids to send away somewhere else for training. Besides, we desperately need their help in our Homes. And in the future, we won't be able to depend on the big headquarters in each Area to do the job for us once our big centers are broken up & scattered by persecution. There's not going to be any other way to do it than to just roll up our sleeves & pray desperately that the Lord gives us the grace & time & organisation & wisdom & enthusiasm & dedication to properly take care of our own kids!

21. It will be a time for "every man to bear his own burden!"—Gal.6:5. We've been bearing each other's burdens for a long time now, but we're going to have to start bearing our own burdens & rolling up our sleeves & getting down to work & saying, "OK, Lord, these kids are our responsibility now, so please help us to do it right & to make it work!"

22. When Techi has problems we can't say, "Oh, it's time to send her off to the Victor Program or to the Teen Combo!" When she's got a problem, we've got a problem‚ & we have to work it out & somehow solve it right here!

EVERYBODY'S GOT TO BE A PARENT!

23. I just don't think that moving our JETTs & Teens around to huge Training Centers can be the solution much longer. The time has come that everybody's now got to be a disciple winner! Everybody's got to be wholehearted! Everybody's got to be a leader & a sample to the Teens! Everybody's got to be a Babes teacher! Everybody's got to be a parent! Everybody's got to do their job! And part of everybody's job now is teaching & training our kids & JETTs & Teens! Because there are so many of them, it's everybody's job!

24. Everybody's got to get involved‚ everybody's got to feel responsible, & everybody's got to do their part! Everybody's got to be desperate & concerned about it, just like everybody in our Home has pitched in & done what they could to help parent Techi! Everybody's done something or other to help her. At least they've all prayed desperately.—And if there was anything they could do like talking with her or helping her in any way, they all got into the act. That's what all our people are going to have to do with all our kids! Look how many kids we have now!—Everybody's needed to help care for them, to parent them!

25. Kids don't just automatically grow up to become wonderful disciples if they're unsupervised & untaught.—The Lord didn't make it work that way. He made it so that they require lots of effort, lots of time & lots of attention!—Which means somebody or somebodies have got to give it to them! And with as many kids as we have now, everybody in the Family has got to start getting into parenting & shepherding our kids! After all‚ they belong to all of us, not just to their flesh parents or assigned teachers, but to us all as a Family!

26. Even if you're untrained & you feel completely incapable, if you step out by faith & try to meet the need by spending time with them, & do what you can to put these principles into practice, the Lord will anoint you! You'll probably just have to pray‚ "Lord, we know hardly anything about it, but we've got this ministry & so many children to take care of on our hands & we've got to do something about it!—So please help us!" The Lord can teach you if you just get desperate enough, & if you are willing to do whatever you can to help our kids make it for the Lord!

"AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION" IS NEEDED NOW!

27. One problem child can do the Lord's Work a lot of damage! Just one boy ran away from one of our Homes not long ago, & he tried to board a plane without a passport & it caused no end of trouble to the Work where that Home was located.—Even resulting in them having to move that entire large Home that hadn't even been in operation very long. Only one weak boy was able to cause all this trouble resulting in the police, INTERPOL, the Social Services, deprogrammers & all getting involved!

28. We could say we don't have the time to spend on these kids because of all the other ministries & responsibilities we have. And it really does look like we don't have the time. But we're learning that we've simply got to take the time sooner or later. And it's far better to take the time now when their problems are smaller & at the beginning stages, than it is to wait until their problems erupt into very serious problems & bedlam & crime.

29. System intervention can result in terrible repercussions all over the World! Just one little kid not having the supervision & discipline & training he needs can result in so much trouble that you'll be very sorry that you didn't do more to care for him to begin with!

THE CHALLENGE TO CHANGE!

30. As I said, we don't have any easy answers, any nice & neat "one-two-three" solutions. I just feel that our whole system has got to change now, & it's time for everybody to start taking responsibility for our kids & our Teens! Our Homes have got to revolve around the kids.—And I'm sure they will pretty soon, when we start breaking up & dispersing some of our huge Teen Combos & School Homes! With persecution mounting, that's what's going to have to happen, & it's already happening in some places.

31. We can no longer say or have the attitude that "the kids help make our ministry possible," & try to use them as an enhancement or help to our different ministries without expecting to put a lot of time, effort & plain hard work into them. Besides‚ they're not just a help to our ministry‚ they are our ministry—our major ministry!—And they're some of our hardest work, our biggest job, more than almost any other kind of work we have! Even one child is a tremendous challenge, but here we've got thousands of children! We were never faced with such a challenge before!

32. Will you pitch in & do what you can to help meet this challenge? Remember‚ God never gives you a job without making you equal to the task!